Slidable cooking top



DCC- 7, 1965 J. R. URBANK SLIDABLE COOKING TOP 2 Sheets-Shes?I l Filed March l5, 1964 ENTOR.

Dec. 7, 1965 J. R. URBANK SLIDABLE COOKING TOP 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March 13, 1964 Ea'. 4f

Co ble to Control Swit hes Cable to Cooking Unit Cable To Swich For Rear Units Deenerizo'ron 3| INVENTOR Lw /9 W United States Patent O 3,222,115 SLIDABLE COOKING TOP Joseph R. Urbank, Oak Lawn, Ill., assignor to General Electric Company, a corporation of New York Filed Mar. 13, 1964, Ser. No. 351,773 4 Claims. (Cl. S12-223) This invention relates to cooking appliances having a fixed cabinet arranged to slidably house a drawer-like cooking top equipped with a plurality of cooking units; and in particular the invention relates to latching and latch actuating devices for releasably holding the cooking top in a retracted or an operating position.

Among the more popular types of contemporary cooking ranges are those having a cooking top mounted on a support structure which has at its rear an upstanding box-like column which may in turn support a forwardly projecting oven and house of blower and ltering means for grease and odor removal. Because ranges of this type are designed to be included in a conventional kitchen counter arrangement, the maximum front-to-rear depth of the range should not be more than 25 inches; and because the Ibox-like column at the rear may be from 8 to 10 inches deep, the remaining 15 or 17 inches of the overall depth are insufficient for the elicient location and accommodation of the four cooking units with which a cooking top is conventionally equipped. Therefore, the cooking top is slidably mounted in its cabinet structure so that when it is pushed inwardly to a retracted or home position its front edge will be in substantial alignment with the adjacent 4front edge of the kitchen counter. However, in this position a substantial part of the rear of the cooking top-including a portion of the rearmost cooking units-will be beneath the box-like column structure. When the cooking top is drawn forwardly to its maximum cooking position, all four of the cooking units will be available for service. It is -obviously desirable to provide switch means to deactivate the rear cooking units when they are beneath the rear supporting structure.

Principal objects of my invention are to provide means for releasably latching the cooking top in its home position while deactivating the rear cooking units; to releasably latch the cooking top in its forward position to prevent accidental rearward displacement during a cooking operation; and to provide a releasable stop means independent of the latch-ing means to preclude accidental excessive withdrawal of the cooking top while providing for such further Withdrawal as may be necessary to carry out any required servicing or repair operation.

In a presently preferred embodiment of the invention, the cooking range includes a cabinet structure having parallel side walls and a bottom wall `defining an opentopped and open-front housing within which a drawer-like cooking top is slidably mounted. At the rear of the base wall of the cabinet structure I provide a `stop plate having upstanding side walls which provide front and rear apertures spaced according to the desired normal extent of the movement of the cooking top to and from its home position. An L-shaped stop member is pivotally attached to the top plate at each end thereof and is arranged t-o be swung in a vertical plane between a rst position in which it will engage structure on the cooking -top to preclude further movement of said top, and a second position in which it will permit such further movement. By means of an overthrow spring arrangement, the stop members may be held in either of their two positions. In electric and lin gas ranges-and the present invention is applicable in its broad sense to each type-surface cooking units are removable or are at least displaceable to permit t-he housewife to clean up spillage which might have occurred dur- Patented Dec. 7, 1965 ICC ing a cooking operation. The stop members above noted are located so that a serviceman, using a slender tool such as a relatively long shafted screwdriver, may reach the stop members to liip them individually to their secondnamed position when he wishes to withdraw the cooking top for service.

The cooking top itself is equipped at each side with 'a plunger which is spring-biased to project through openings i'n the stop plate side walls. By means of a linkage mechanism mounted to the underside of the cook top and equipped with a readily yaccessible handle at the front of the cooking top, the user may withdraw Ithe plungers 'from the stop plate apertures when it is desired to withdraw the cooking top forwardly to permit the rear cooking units to be used or to return the cooking top from such position to its home position. The user will know that the cooking top is in its maximum withdrawn position by the interruption of further movement by the stop members; and because of .such members it is impossible for the user carelessly to withdraw the cooking top beyond its proper limit. As the user releases the handle upon the attainment of the withdrawn position, the outward projection of one of the plungers actuates a switch in a circuit with the rear heating elements and thus prepares the heating elements to be energized as desired by the user. It is understood, of course, that switches conventionally used -in electric ranges are in the control circuits of all of the heating units.

It is, therefore, a feature of the invention that the cooking top cannot be carelessly drawn beyond its maximum cooking position, while means are provided whereby the top may be easily released to permit any necessary additional withdrawal.

Other features and advantages of the invention will best be understood from the following description of a presently preferred embodiment, read in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a cooking appliance embodying the present invention with portions of the cooking top broken away to disclose underlying structure;

FIG. 2 is a side sectional elevation taken on lines 2 2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a front elevation of the cooking top with the main support structure thereof shown in fragmentary front elevation;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary elevation taken on lines 4 4 of FIG. l;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged sectional elevation taken on lines 5-5 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 s a front elevational view of the latching mechansm and stop device; and

FIG. 7 is a plan view of the bell crank actuator, one of the cranks having been removed to show the pivot hole and slot for crank mounting.

Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 2, a cooking range includes a cabinet or housing structure having a supporting base 1 of which the distance from the front wall 2 to the rear wall 3 is of the `order of 24 inches. The base further includes a panel 4 which is substantially imperforate except for slots 5 for a purpose later dened. The rear wall 6 of a superstructure extends upwardly; there is arranged as part of said rear wall, other wall structure which forms a substantially rectangular hollow structure 7 which in ranges manufactured by applicants assignee herein serves as a support structure for an oven (not shown) and as an accommodation for electrical wiring and other accessories not important to the present invention. Further, the principal cabinet structure has side walls 8 and 9 which may extend substantially from the rear wall 6 to the front wall 2 of the cabinet base. Said side walls form front extensions of the side walls of the structure 7. Suitably mounted lon the panel 4 are pairs of supports, comprising a rear pair 10 and a front pair 11 which serve slidably to mount a drawer-like cooking top 12.

The cooking top 12 is a hollow rectangular structure of sheet metal in which the upper panel 14 constitutes a cooking surface having a plurality of cooking units disposed respectively in the fianged front openings 15K and 15L and in the anged rear openings 16R and 16L. The heating units have not been shown for they are not critical to the present invention; in cooking ranges manufactured by applicants assignee, and in which the present invention is used, the heating elements are the familiar tubular sheathed type disclosed in Vallorani U.S. Patent 2,662,157, patented December 8, 1953 for Surface Heating Unit With Improved Hinge and Ground Connection and assigned to my present assignee. As disclosed in said patent, the heating units are hingedly attached to a depending wall such as the wall 17 of the heating unit opening 15R, whereupon the unit may be swung upwardly from its operative position in which it occupies a plane parallel to but slightly above the cooking surface 14. Also as disclosed in said Vallorani patent, each of the surface cooking units include a retiector pan (not shown) which rests on the iiange portion 18 to the cooking unit opening and is thus disposed below the actual sheaved resistance element of the unit. As is well known, these reflector bowls or pans are removable after the heating units have been swung upwardly as aforesaid. This cooking unit arrangement is in all respects conventional, and with reference to the present invention the only significance of the heating unit arrangement is that when the heating units in the 15K and 15L openings are swung upwardly and the reiiector pans removed, a serviceman has ample room to reach beneath the cooking top to manipulate releases mechanisms later described. The cooking top has a base wall 2t) which may have a cut-out portion 21 at the rear but is preferably imperforate below the cooking unit openings. The cook top has imperforate side walls and a front wall 22. The front-to-rear depth of the cooking appliance measured from the forwardmost part of the front wall 22 to the rear panel 6 is preferably of the order of 25 inches, thus making it compatible with the usual counter top of kitchen base cabinets, not shown.

The mounting of the cooking top on the blocks 10 and 11 permit the top to be slid forwardly from the home position of FIG. 1, in which the rear heating units are partially concealed by the overhanging structure 7 and are thus inoperative, to a withdrawn position in which all of the rear units are fully exposed and thus available for service. The present invention provides mechanism for securing the top in its home position and in its fully extended position, and for providing for the further withdrawal of the cooking top when necessary.

Looking now at FIGS. 1 and 5, there is fixed to the panel 4 of the housing structure 1 a stop plate 23 having an upwardly extending ange 24 dening its rear wall and upwardly extending side walls 25. Each side wall has a central portion 26 from the respective ends of which flanges 27, 28 project; with the edge portions 30, 31 of the respective side walls, the flanges 27, 28 define apertures. At the front of each side wall (in FIG. 5, that is the lefthand portion of the wall) the wall 25 rises to the height of the Wall portion 26. A tab 32 projects downwardly from the base of the stop plate at each side thereof, and the respective tabs pass through the openings of the panel 4. Each of the tabs serves to pivotally support an L-shaped stop member 33. As best shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the stop members are immediately behind the edge wall 34 of the wall portion 25, whereby said edge wall buttresses the stop member if the cooking top is drawn too forcefully away from its home position. The stop members are maintained i their normal operative position of FIG. 6 by means of the spring 35; said spring is arranged to have a toggling action which will maintain the stop member in the release position indicated by broken line in FIG. 6. The limit of the release position is established by the engagement of the stop member with an adjacent edge of the base of the stop plate 23.

The stop members are available to a serviceman when the cooking unit in the respective openings 15K and 15L are swung upwardly, as taught in the above-mentioned Vallorani patent, and the reflector bowl removed. The cooking units in said openings are of the order of eight inches in diameter and there is ample room for the serviceman to reach into the cooking top with a long-shafted screw-driver or the like and fiip each of the stop members into its release position, or to return the members from their release position to their normal position.

The latching mechanism for association with the stop plate is, of course, carried by the cooking top. Specically, a fiange 36 projecting rearwardly from the rear wall 37 of the cooking top, has afiixed thereto a U-shaped bracket 38 in a position where a bracket will be suitably within the side wall 25 of the stop plate (at each end of the stop plate) while being placed to engage the related stop member 33 when said member is in its FIG. 6 position. Of course, this engagement normally limits the extent of withdrawal of the cooking top. It will be seen from FIG. 6 that when the stop members are in their release position they will not be engaged by the brackets 38. Each of the brackets 38 is provided with aligned apertures to slidably receive a plunger 4t). Advantageously, each of the plungers has a reduced diameter portion which provides a suitable shoulder between which and the bracket a coil spring 41 may be confined, as seen in FIG. 6. Each coil spring biases its associated plunger in an outward direction. In this position each of the plungers will come into an overlapping relation with the stop plate flanges 27 or 28, depending on the position of the cooking top. In the home position of the cooking top, which will be established when the bracket 38 engages the flange 24 of the stop plate, the plunger 40 will pass easily into overlapping relation with the adjacent stop plate flange 23, and it is obvious that the cooking top is then secured against withdrawal.

An effective mechanism is provided for withdrawing the respective plungers to permit movement of the cooking top. Centrally at the rear of the top panel 14 of the cooking top I afiix an upwardly facing U-shaped bracket 43, said bracket having the wings 44 providing areas at which the bracket may be welded to the underside of the panel 14. The bracket 43 slidably supports a push-arm plate 45 on its undersurface. On the bottom of the push-arm plate I attach a pair of bell cranks 46. The pivot attachment of each bell crank is at 47 a rivet 48 passes through the bracket 43 through an elongated opening 5t) in the plate 45 and through an appropriate aperture in the bell crank. A push-arm 51 is pivotally attached to the free end of each bell crank and each arm 51 pivotally attaches to an end of the respective plungers 40. It will be seen that when the push plate 45 is propelled in a rearward direction, the respective bell cranks will be rotated in directions which will draw on the pusharms to withdraw the plungers relative to the apertures in the stop plate side walls.

The necessary movement of the plate 45 is accomplished by means of a handle 52, FIG. 4, pivotally mounted in a bracket 53 xed within the cooking top and projecting to a location conveniently accessible. The actuating surface 54 of the handle slidably abuts the upstanding end 55 of a push-rod 56 slidably supported between extending fingers 57 and 58 of a support bracket 59. It will be understood that the respective springs 41 acting through the cranks 46 and the plate 45 urge the push-rod 56 toward the handle 52, maintaining said handle in a position in which it engages a stop or stops 53.1 provided on the handle pivot support bracket 53.

It has been previously noted that it is desirable to disable the rear cooking units when said units are partially concealed by the closely overlying structure 7 when the cooking top is in its home position. I therefore provide on one of the side walls of the stop plate 23 an appropriate switch 60 having an actuator arm 61 which projects into the stop plate aperture defined by the liange 27 and side wall edge 30, as best shown in FIG. 5. The switch is arranged so that the actuator arm maintains the switch in open circuit condition until the arm is rotated counterclockwise of FIG. l. Such counterclockwise rotation can occur only by the engagement of the plunger 40 as said plunger is projected to its normally outwardly extended position following the Withdrawal of the cooking top to its maximum cooking position.

To permit the complete withdrawal of the cooking top from its housing, I provide a separate electrical connector 63, shown somewhat schematically in FIG. 5. Power leads from a conventional three-wire Edison 236-volt supply system enters the block portion 64 and through various conventional separable terminal arrangements (not shown), means are provided whereby cables attached to the separable portion 65 of the terminal block 63 provided appropriate electrical connections with the respective heating units and the switches (not shown) which in contemporary high oven ranges are frequently mounted on a control panel (not shown) above orV adjacent the upper ovens (not shown). Cable from the fixed block portion 64, which leads to said switches, is conveniently accommodated within the structure 7. Wiring details and circuit diagrams have not been shown as they are conventional in all respects.

Should a serviceman wish to remove the cooking top completely from the housing, he will manipulate the stop members to their release position, as earlier described, withdraw the cooking top until the rear wall 37 is sufiiciently forward of the structure 7 to give him access to the terminal block 63, and then he will discngage the portion 65 thereof. It is understood, of course, that there is ample slack in the various cables to permit this operation.

While there has been described what is at present thought to be a preferred embodiment of the invention, it will be understood that various modifications may be made therein, and it is intended to cover in the appended claims all such modifications which fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. A cooking range, including structure providing a fixed base having a bottom panel and parallel side walls defining an open-front housing,

a channel-shaped stop structure extending partially across said bottom panel adjacent the rear thereof, said stop structure having upstanding side walls formed to provide an opening near the rear and near the front thereof,

structure providing a drawer-like cooking top having a width substantially equal to the distance between said housing side walls and being arranged to contain the side walls of said stop structure,

means for mounting said cooking top for sliding movement within said housing,

plunger means mounted at a lower rear portion of said cooking top for movement into or out of one or the other of said stop Structure sidewall openings aocording to the relation of said cooking top thereto,

spring means for biasing said plunger means for movement into the respective openings,

manually operable means disposed at the front of said cooking top to retract said plunger means relative to said stop structure side walls to permit the cooking top to be moved forwardly or rearwardly,

and means mounted on said stop structure forwardly of the said front opening thereof to engage with said plunger mounting means to interrupt forward move- 6 ment of said cooking top regardless of the said retraction of said plunger means,

said last named stop structure means being accessible through a top wall of said cooking top for displacement relative to said plunger mounting means to permit any desired further forward movement of said cooking top.

2. A cooking range, including structure providing a xed base having a bottom panel and parallel side walls defining an open-front housing,

a channel-shaped stop structure extending partially across said bottom panel adjacent the rear thereof, said stop structure having upstanding side Walls formed to provide an opening near the rear and near the front thereof,

structure providing a drawer-like cooking top having a width substantially equal to the distance between said housing side walls and being arranged to contain the side walls of said stop structure,

means for mounting said cooking top for sliding movement within said housing,

mechanism including a plunger mounted at a lower rear portion of said cooking top for movement into or out of one or the other of said stop structure sidewall openings according to the -relation of the cooking top thereto,

spring means for biasing said plunger for movement into said openings,

manually operable means disposed at the front of said cooking top to retract said plunger relative to said stop structure side walls to permit the cooking top to be moved forwardly or rearwardly,

means pivotally mounted on said stop structure forwardly of the said front opening thereof to engage with said plunger mechanism to interrupt forward movement of said cooking top regardless of the said retraction of said plunger,

said pivotally mounted means being accessible through -a top wall of said cooking top for displacement to a position relative to said plunger mechanism to permit any desired further forward movement of said cooking top,

and toggle spring means for releasably retaining said pivotally mounted means in its said displaced posit1on.

3. A cooking range, including structure providing a fixed base having a bottom panel and parallel side walls delining an open-front housing,

a channel-shaped stop structure extending partially across said bottom panel adjacent the rear thereof, said stop structure having upstanding side walls formed to provide an opening near the rear and near the front thereof,

structure providing a drawer-like cooking top having a width substantially equal to the distance between said housing side walls and being arranged to contain the side walls of said stop structure,

means for mounting said cooking top for sliding movement within said housing,

a plunger mounted adjacent the respective rear corner portions of said cooking top for movement into or out of t-he openings of the immediately adjacent side Wall of said stop structure,

spring means for biasing said plunger to project through the respective openings,

a rigid link pivotally connected with each of said plunger for withdrawing the same from the respective stop structure openings,

a bell crank individual to each said link,

and means including a handle disposed at the front of said cooking top for actuating each said bell crank to conjointly withdraw the respective plungers to the extent necessary to release said cooking top for movement in a desired direction.

4. A cooking range according to claim 3, further characterized in having a switch mounted in fixed relation to a side wa11 of said stop plate, and switch actuator means extending from said switch into one of the openings of said side wall, said actuator means being engageable by one of said plungers in its projected position for operating said switch to a desired electric circuit condition.

References Cited bythe Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS Heath 10S-143 Buntin 312-333 X Pearce et a1. 126-.-37 More 126-37 X CHANCELLOR E. HARRIS, Primary Examiner. 

3. A COOKING RANGE, INCLUDING STRUCTURE PROVIDING A FIXED BASE HAVING A BOTTOM PANEL AND PARALLEL SIDE WALLS DEFINING AN OPEN-FRONT HOUSING, A CHANNEL-SHAPED STOP STRUCTURE EXTENDING PARTIALLY ACROSS SAID BOTTOM PANEL ADJACENT BE THE REAR THEREOF, SAID STOP STRUCTURE HAVING UPSTANDING SIDE WALLS FORMED TO PROVIDE AN OPENING NEAR THE REAR AND NEAR THE FRONT THEREOF, STRUCTURE PROVIDING A DRAWER-LIKE COOKING TOP HAVING A WIDTH SUBSTANTIALLY EQUAL TO THE DISTANCE BETWEEN SAID HOUSING SIDE WALLS AND BEING ARRANGED TO CONTAIN THE SIDE WALLS OF SAID STOP STRUCTURE, MEANS FOR MOUNTING SAID COOKING TOP FOR SLIDING MOVEMENT WITHIN SAID HOUSING, A PLUNGER MOUNTED ADJACENT THE RESPECTIVE REAR CORNER PORTIONS OF SAID COOKING TOP FOR MOVEMENT INTO OR OUT OF THE OPENINGS OF THE IMMEDIATELY ADJACENT SIDE WALL OF SAID STOP STRUCTURE, SPRING MEANS FOR BIASING SAID PLUNGER TO PROJECT THROUGH THE RESPECTIVE OPENINGS, A RIGID LINK PIVOTALLY CONNECTED WITH EACH OF SAID 